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7 Common Misconceptions About World War II

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7 Common Misconceptions About World War II Seven Common Misconceptions about World War II World War II ended three-quarters of a century ago. Now only a tiny and fast- dwindling number of Americans still possess an active memory of the conflict, and most of the rest of us view what happened through the gauzy tissue of fiction and faulty memory. The United States won the war, didn’t we? Through the unparalleled courage of the “Greatest Generation” and the awesome industrial power of our economy, we overwhelmed the Nazi juggernaut in little more than three years and brought Imperial Japan to her knees in less than four. Well, yes. There’s more than a fair measure of truth in all that. In fact, it’s true as far as it goes. But the story of the Second World War is far, far bigger, and far more complex. Most Americans labor under misconceptions about its true nature. And that truth is hiding in plain sight for anyone willing to look closely. Here goes . #1. World War II lasted for four years. Some historians consider World Wars I and II to be part of a single protracted conflict— a twentieth-century Thirty Years’ War, if you will. Others argue that the second global war began in 1931 when Japan’s renegade Kwantung Army engineered the Mukden Incident and subsequently invaded Manchuria. Others still might contend that the Italian invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1935-37 or the German and Italian involvement in the Spanish Civil War in 1936-39, usually thought a dry run for the Axis, should be considered of a piece with the global conflict. Although the historical consensus in the West dates the launch of World War II to September 1, 1939, when Nazi armies forced their way into Poland, from a global perspective the war had already been underway for at least two years. On July 7, 1937, Chinese and Japanese troops exchanged fire in the vicinity of the Marco Polo (or Lugou) Bridge, a crucial access route to Beiping (today Beijing). What began as confused, sporadic skirmishing soon escalated into a full-scale battle in which Beiping and its port city of Tianjin fell to the Japanese. That was more than four years before Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941). And the US military became actively engaged in hostilities in the European theater only on November 8, 1942, when American and British troops under the command of Dwight Eisenhower invaded Morocco and Algeria. Less than four years of active warfare later, World War II staggered to a close on September 2, 1945, when the Empire of Japan surrendered on board the battleship Missouri. Japanese officials arriving onboard the USS Missouri, September 2, 1945, to sign the instrument of unconditional surrender. Image credit: Stars and Stripes. #2. The US lost as many dead as our allies. American families—and our nation as a whole—paid a terrible price in the deaths of more than 400,000 soldiers, sailors, and airmen. But the numbers of dead paled by comparison with those of our allies, as you can see in the following table. There, you’ll find a comparison of the mortality rates suffered by both the combatant nations and those inadvertently drawn into the war. (You can see a more comprehensive list on Wikipedia’s article, “World War II casualties.”) Please note that most historians use the range 20,000,000 to 25,000,000 dead for the Soviet Union—I’ve seen estimates as high as 27,000,000—with 15,000,000 to 20,000,000 for China and 6,900,000 to 7,400,000 for Germany. I’ve used the lower numbers in each case. World War II deaths in proportion to population Country Coalition 1939 pop (millions) Deaths Deaths as % of total Poland 34.8 5,900,000 16.95 USSR Allies 168.5 20,000,000 11.86 Germany Axis 69.3 6,900,000 9.96 Yugoslavia 15.5 1,027,000 6.58 China Allies 267.6 15,000,000 5.64 French Indochina 24.7 1,000,000 4.04 Philippines 16 557,000 3.48 Japan Axis 71.9 2,500,000 3.47 Netherlands 8.7 210,000 2.41 France Allies 42 600,000 1.43 Italy Axis 43.4 492,400 1.13 Belgium 8.4 88,000 1.05 Britain Allies 47.8 450,900 0.94 India 377.8 2,200,000 0.58 Australia 7 40,400 0.58 Norway 2.9 10,200 0.40 Canada 11 43,600 0.38 USA Allies 131 419,400 0.38 World 2,300 70,000,000 3.04 The greatest impact of World War II in lives lost was—by far—suffered in Eastern Europe and East Asia. From a geopolitical perspective, the Western Front was a sideshow. And the US, despite the horrific cost we paid in lives, was by comparison far less affected. (Note: I’ve identified as Allies only the five principals considered central to the pursuit of the war—the US, Britain, France, the USSR, and China—although forty-six nations signed the Declaration of the United Nations and were thus engaged on our side.) We Americans justifiably dwell on the enormous sacrifice our country endured because fanatical leaders thousands of miles away sent the world spinning out of control for years on end. But it’s only fitting that we honor historical truth and recognize that we were far from alone in the struggle—and others lost far, far more. #3. The Normandy invasion was the biggest battle of the war. In the West, we tend to think of the American, British, and Canadian invasion of Normandy—Operation Overlord—as the biggest event of World War II. In fact, the operation was immense. The action on June 6, 1944, involved 5,000 ships, 1,200 aircraft, 2,200 tanks and assault guns, and (initially) 156,000 soldiers. It was the largest and most complex amphibious operation ever mounted in human history. Eventually, the invasion force grew to 680,000, and by the end of August 1944, more than two million Allied soldiers were on French soil. Still, other military operations in the war were bigger. Much bigger. For example, consider Operation Bagration around the same time as Normandy. Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 had involved three enormous army groups. Army Group Center was the force intended to drive straight through the USSR and take Moscow. Three years later, by June 1944, Army Group Center had fallen back to positions in Belarus and was on the defensive. With an initial force of 1,670,000 troops—which grew to 2,500,000—Soviet commanders Konstantin Rokossovsky and Georgy Zhukov attacked the German lines shortly after the Normandy invasion in a pincer movement from both north and south. Within two weeks they destroyed twenty- eight of thirty-four divisions in Army Group Center, killing or capturing as many as half a million Germans. Some historians speculate that these losses triggered Operation Valkyrie—Claus von Stauffenberg’s attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler—while the slaughter was still underway a month after the initial attack. Yet even the extraordinary Operation Bagration wasn’t the biggest military event of the war. Late in 1944, Soviet forces were on the verge of reversing the invasion and pushing the Germans entirely out of the USSR. Every red rectangle represents hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers. Image credit: Pinterest. In the table below, you’ll find a selection of what records show to have been the largest named operations of World War II as defined by the number of men engaged. Of course, war is uncommonly messy, and few large military operations can be precisely defined by dates or numbers. They often involve months of preliminary steps and weeks or months of follow-up. And counting the numbers of divisions, or the troops enrolled in them, is only a rough guide to an operation’s scope. In modern warfare, air force (and sometimes naval) personnel are often involved as well, occasionally in large numbers. In some cases, especially late in the Second World War, partisans also became involved in significant strength, most notably on the Eastern Front, in Yugoslavia, and in France following the Normandy invasion. But one number—representing the tally of troops engaged in the operation on the attacking side—is a rough guide to its scope. The Biggest Military Operations of World War II Operation Side Description Dates # Soldiers Barbarossa Axis Nazi invasion of the USSR June 22 – December 5, 1941 3,800,000 Bagration Allies Soviet destruction of German Army June 23 - August 19, 1944 2,500,000 Group Center Kutuzov & Allies Soviet counteroffensive at Kursk July 12 – August 3, 1943 2,500,000 Rumyantsev Downfall Allies Planned US invasion of Japanese Planned for November 1, 1945 and 2,500,000 Home Islands March 1, 1946, but never carried out Citadel Axis German offensive at Kursk July 5 – August 23, 1943 781,000 Overlord Allies Normandy Invasion June 6 – August 30, 1944 640,000 Ichi-Go Axis Japanese attacks on Nationalist April 19 – December 31, 1944 500,000 Chinese Army Wikipedia contains a much more extensive list of the military operations of the war. Those on the Eastern Front are listed separately, as are those in the Pacific Theater. #4. The Allies defeated the Axis against great odds. It’s plausible to argue that all three Axis nations—Germany, Japan, and Italy—went to war in the late 1930s ill-prepared and destined to lose.
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